Education

Instead, this is what they wrote on assorted quizzes, tests, and term papers:

Stars, little twinkling thing that rised up and down constantly.

A three-dimensional plane

An area opposite to another area in the ellipse contained the same amount of area.

Any point on a planet’s orbit was equally distant to the sun, traveling at a constant rate.

According to Newton, gravity is equal to the area squared divided by the mass cubed.

Newton’s law is only mathematically right for objects that have a velocity smaller than the light of speed.

Newtonian telescopes have the mirror bounce off the side ... whereas another kind bounces back through a hole in the original mirror.

One of the Newtonian telescopes was called Cassograin, and how it worked was that the light gathered would not come out.

There are two lens in a refractor. Light enters the tube and is gathered by the first len, and the second len magnifies the focus produced by the first len.

A celestial body can be reflected through three mirrors positioned opposite of eachother.

Godsonian

V-rays

We observe Venus using ultraviolet lights.

3 types of carbonaceous chondrites are relatively common, which can bring carbon to the planet when there is a collision or catering. ... Io ... is the only object in our solar system that does not have catering.

A solar eclipse happens when the darkest side of the moon hits the Earth.

It was in the grounds of Cambridge University that a student and a professor discovered pulsars.

The Big Bang theory has been proved to be true from detecting cosmetic background radiation.

In Fall 2016 I had more students than usual, and they committed more bloopers than usual:

Much of what we know about the universe is unknown.

An overview about a brief overview

The celestial spear does not exist physically.

The sun was directly overhead at noon during the summer solstice and this was marked by the Mayan by aligning important buildings.

In Chichen Itza at sunset the sun would set directly in front of the building.

equatorial pole

The entire Mason Dixon line was surveyed through a stone.

Kepler [wrote] his laws of planetary emotion.

Planets orbit around the sun in ellipsises ... .

The orbit of the sun is an ellipse on the focus.

The square of the period of a planet is proportional to the cubic square of its orbital radius.

The period was squared of a sidereal was proportional to the cubed of distances.

Newton’s idea of gravity explained how the moon is rotating around each big planet.

Many galaxies and objects orbit around the Earth.

Reflecting telescopes were made to eliminate [chromatic aberration] by not having light come in.

The spacecraft Voyager was launched with Yuri Gaganan bravely setting out to find out more informations about the moon.

Particles collided so randomly that the point of randomness did not exist.

Comets have certain features that allows the planets to stay the way they are, maintain its temperature and function.

[Magnetic fields on] many other planets are unable to be identified, some may have North poles, other may have South Poles.

Hubole set out a spacecraft that landed on the surface of Venus.

An object is stuck to the surface of the Earth, instead of vice versa.

Tectonic plates can collide with another, making rivets in the surface or Mountains above.

Magnetic field of the Sun ... causes the rotation of the planet and keeps each stars and comets in its own place without having them fly out different places. It keeps constant the eyle of rotation and speed and makes it possible for planets to stationed.

When a star is closer to the astromer they give off blue rays, farther away give off red.

Planets that redshift are “moving” further away from us on the surface of the Earth.

Both the red dwarves and the red giants go throw the red shift, which is shifting their position in regards to size and temperature that evolve over time.

The observed redshit of spectra from distant galaxies caused astronomers to believe the Universe is expanding.

If we look at the spectral lines of an astronomical object far away, the red color on the spectral lines will move farther away every time we observe, creating a shift between observations.

75% of Long Gamma Ray Bursters occur in galaxies with the lowest mental content.

Two supermassive black holes have been found in the Chandra X-ray satellite.

The Kickstarter campaign for this project ended May 23, 2016, but the site plays on: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1592946658/bright-eye-telescopes. We are accepting reservations but not new orders via eMail: normsperling@gmail.com; or by snail-mail to: 2625 Alcatraz Avenue #235, Berkeley, California 94705 USA. Once we finish the first batch of telescopes, we will determine production processes for the next batch.
Bright–Eye®

Congratulations! You just launched on the easiest and fastest route to the stars! Bright–Eye® sets up the fastest and lets you find targets the fastest of any newcomer’s telescope. It shows you the widest, richest, most contrasty view. Bright–Eye is compact, portable, rugged ... and cute.

SAFETY FIRST:
DON’T LOOK AT THE SUN!

Even without magnifying, the Sun is painfully bright. Collecting more light makes it so intense that you can permanently burn out your retina in a fraction of a second – faster than you can flinch. That hole in your vision will be permanent; the retina never grows back. If you point your scope at the Sun, even if you aren’t looking through it, concentrated sunlight can melt plastic, and quickly set fire to whatever wanders into its line of sight, such as your shirt or your hair. For telescope users, the Sun is a “no-go zone”.

OUT OF THE BOX

Bright–Eye tubes are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Bright–Eye spheres are made of acrylic. Each individual shell has its own distinctive color pattern.

EYEPIECE FOCUSER
EYEPIECE
CYLINDER
SPHERE
BASE

The shell has 3 distinct zones:
• The sphere is the telescope’s mounting.
• The cylinder keeps the mirrors and eyepiece all in their proper positions.
• Poking out of the cylinder’s side is the eyepiece focuser.

The cylinder encloses the optical tube assembly. That contains the first 2 optical pieces that light encounters on its way from the sky to the eye.

Set the base on a table, with the base-ring facing up. Gently set the telescope’s ball in the bowl, with the top of the cylinder pointing pretty high.

The dust-cap keeps the window clean when you’re not observing. It’s way easier to keep crud away than to very delicately clean it out later. Cleaning tips are on page \\. The hemispheres that protect big telescopes are domes, so we make our little one that shape too. It’s a simple friction fit. Start your observing sessions the same way the big observatories do: open up the dome.

If there is a plug in the eyepiece hole, pluck it out (but save it to put back when the session is over). The eyepiece itself is probably in a small box. Gently open the box and (avoiding touching glass surfaces) unwrap the eyepiece. Slide it into the eyepiece hole.

RIDE A BEAM OF LIGHT
THROUGH BRIGHT–EYE

Light’s First Encounter: Light goes to the bottom of the tube, where it hits the main mirror. That’s lower in the middle, higher on the rim. The mirror is 41/4 inches (108 mm) in diameter.

To focus starlight, the mirror has a special “paraboloidal” curve: take a parabola, and spin it on its axis. The amount the mirror is curved puts the focus 17 inches (432 mm) up the axis. You could stick an eyepiece at that focus, but if you tried to look through it, your head would block light from entering the telescope at all, leaving nothing to see.

Light’s Second Encounter: Pondering this problem, the great scientist Isaac Newton figured that you could stick a diagonal mirror a little before the focus, and shunt the light out the side. Put your eyepiece there, and look through it without blocking the view.

Newton was a genius! His plan worked. He made the first successful reflecting telescope. For hundreds of years, Newtonian reflectors have been the world’s favorite form of telescope. They collect more light for less money than any other kind. Bright–Eye’s optical pattern is a Newtonian reflector. The diagonal mirror is attached to the “spider” that straddles the top of the tube.

Light’s Third Encounter: The eyepiece is a sophisticated magnifying glass for examining the focused light. Astronomical eyepieces now come in a great many optical patterns. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Bright–Eye’s eyepiece gives a wide view with minimal distortions and comfortable “eye-relief”. It has a standard 1¼-inch (31¾ mm)-wide tube, so any other standard eyepiece can slide in there too. Shorter eyepieces magnify the image more. That’s good for observing planets and the Moon, but it makes the field of view very small, so planets are hard to find, and hard to keep in view. Higher magnification also dilutes the feeble light of comets, nebulæ, and galaxies. Different eyepieces may show wider views (but they’re a lot more expensive), and have less eye-relief (hard to use if you wear glasses, and sometimes hard to find the image even if you don’t), or are cheaper (with a narrow view ... or poor quality). As newer types of optical glass are invented, different combinations of features will be optimized, with different trade-offs.

Magnification (“power”) is the best-known, but one of the least-important, telescope factors. Divide the “focal length” of the big mirror (432 mm) by the focal length of the eyepiece (25 mm). 17 power is our recommended magnification for newcomers. Get used to it to start with. Experienced observers who have many eyepieces will tell you they use low power eyepieces most of the time.

Light’s Fourth Encounter: Your eye. Human eyes are not identical to one another. When reading this description, adapt it to your personal eyesight.

Light enters the dark circle in the middle of your eye, the “pupil”. This may widen to 7 mm (¼ inch) in a young person who has adapted to darkness for at least 30 minutes. That’s how to collect the most light, and therefore see the faintest details. The following factors narrow the pupil and dim the view, depending on dose and time:
• age
• consuming alcohol
• consuming nicotine
• adapting to darkness for less time
• observing from a place that isn’t very dark

If you don’t wear eyeglasses (contact lenses are OK): look straight down the center of the eyepiece. Stay just out of eyelash-distance from the eyepiece.

If you wear glasses but aren’t sure of the technical reasons, here are easy ways to tell.
• Hold your glasses just above something printed. If the lenses act like magnifying glasses, you’re farsighted.
• Hold your glasses at arm’s length in front of you and look through the lenses. If they make things look smaller, you’re nearsighted.
• If you rotate a lens around its middle, and stuff beyond seems to tilt left and right, you have astigmatism.
• If things look fuzzy, your lenses need cleaning, so meticulously follow the instructions on page \\.

If you wear eyeglasses to correct astigmatism: You’ll probably see sharper with your glasses on. Unfortunately, eyeglasses keep you farther from the eyepiece so you see a narrower field of view. Keep far enough from the eyepiece to avoid scratching your eyeglass lens on the eyepiece frame: the easiest way is to unroll the rubber rim on the eyepiece. Experiment with and without glasses, with each eye. You may prefer the way that gives the sharpest view, but if it’s not much different, you may prefer the way that gives the most comfortable view.

If you wear eyeglasses because you are farsighted: Take your glasses off and put them in a safe place, where you won’t lose them in the dark, nor drop them, nor step on them. A buttoned shirt pocket might work, or a zipped jacket pocket. Use the eyepiece just the same as a person without glasses. The only difference is in tweaking the focus knobs a tad one way or the other compared to standard 20/20 vision.

If you wear eyeglasses because you are nearsighted: Read the “farsighted” paragraph above, but there’s an added hassle: When your glasses are off, you can’t see the starry sky well. To point the scope in the right direction, put your glasses on. To see when you’ve got your target in view, leave your glasses on but tweak the focus knobs to sharpen the view. Once you acquire the target, take your glasses off so you can approach almost to eyelash range of the eyepiece, and re-tweak focus to sharpen the view.

BRIGHT–EYE ON DAY ONE

For your first look through your new telescope, go outside during daytime, as long as the weather won’t hurt yourself or your scope. Set your base on a table, gently set the sphere in the ring-stand, and point the window up, but nowhere near the Sun. Then gradually swivel the top end down to where the sky disappears behind a tree, building, mountain, or whatever ... the farther away, the better. Looking straight down through the eyepiece, gently turn the focus knobs till the image sharpens. Now notice 2 things about your scope:
• Lean down behind the sphere, and look at where the top of the sphere, and the top of the eyepiece, line up with what you’re seeing through the eyepiece. That’s your line of sight.
• Also, notice how far the eyepiece stands above the flat that it pokes into. The nearer the thing you focus on, the higher up the eyepiece must be. Don’t look at objects within about 10 meters (33 feet) because the eyepiece could literally fall out of the tube. The farther away the object you focus on, the farther down the eyepiece must be. Farther than a kilometer (½ mile) or so, all objects beyond that are simultaneously in focus. That’s nicknamed “infinity”. Start your nighttime explorations with the eyepiece sticking out just that amount, so you’ll be very close to true focus.

While it’s still daylight, scan your scope around and look at everything you can see. Each time, notice where the top of the sphere and the top of the eyepiece are, compared to the thing you’re observing. Notice how far in or out the eyepiece is, and relate that to the distance of the thing you’re observing.

Practically all astronomical telescopes “invert” the view. There’s no up or down in space so that doesn’t matter. For looking at things on the ground, it can matter a lot, so here’s a way to make things look upright.
• Stand behind the scope, with the scope right in front of you, and the thing you’re looking at much farther away in that same direction. When you bend down to look through the eyepiece, the image looks upside down.
• Now move to the side of the telescope and look through the eyepiece. From that angle, the image looks sideways.
• Now move again, till you’re almost in front of the scope, with your back to the thing you’re looking at. (If you get exactly in front, you block the view yourself.) Look through the eyepiece. From that angle, the scene looks upright.
Trees, bushes, and rocks often look very esthetic even at unaccustomed angles. Experiment. If you like the view, that makes it “right”.

FIRST NIGHT, FIRST LIGHT

The first time a telescope shows you an astronomical object (like the Moon or stars) is called that telescope’s “First Light”. We recommend that you use a marker to write “First Light” and the date somewhere on the cylinder, or on the sphere close to the cylinder, or on the base. \\illustrate\\

Start observing astronomical objects, guided by the accompanying book To Know the Stars. At first, most targets will take some searching. Start with bright and big objects. They’re easiest to find, and very rewarding to examine. They’ll catch your eye instantly as you scan by. 5 seconds to look over each field of view is plenty to notice bright objects.

Develop a scan pattern: up and down, or side to side, or spiraling out ... whatever you please. To spot fainter objects, scan slower – 10 or 15 seconds to examine each field of view. It’s not a race, so take your time and enjoy whatever swims into sight. Use a “star-hopping” reference to show you the route from a bright star, past nearby faint ones, to your goal. Even if you can’t find your target, enjoy examining the neighborhood ... and often the target will turn up in the process.

Objects are usually easier to find the second or third time than the first time. They haven’t grown bigger or brighter, of course, but now you know what to look for. As you gain experience, try for fainter and smaller challenges.

While you watch sky objects, Earth’s rotation is magnified by the same 17 times as the view, so objects “drift” out of view after a couple minutes. While watching through the eyepiece, gently tap the upper end of the scope to push it in the direction you want the image to move. Think of yourself as pushing the image rather than pushing the telescope. You’ll soon get enough experience to keep stars in view for as long as you want. \\illustrate\\

Using a high power eyepiece makes things move out of view much faster, and chasing them becomes frustrating. That’s why bigger telescopes have clock drives and electronic-driven finders. You can grow into handling those. But while you’re just beginning, stick to the low-power eyepiece we supply. It minimizes frustration while maximizing brightness, contrast, and field of view.

FAR OUT

From suburbs, Bright–Eye can spot 8 planets and at least 7 moons (4 of Jupiter and 2 of Saturn, and of course Earth’s). It can show you the entire Messier catalog of the finest clusters, nebulæ, and galaxies. The farthest findable object is probably Messier 87, a giant elliptical galaxy roughly 55 million light years away.

Moving from suburbs to dark skies makes every one of those objects easier to find and better-looking, and allows glimpsing even farther galaxies. It’s worth going to the darkest place that’s safe and convenient.

• CHECK-OUT MODEL, for libraries, clubs, and classes to check out. Complete telescope and carrying strap. For people using it unsupervised, we make pieces harder to lose: we bolt the eyepiece in, and tether the base and dust-cap with wires. Such groups already have skywatching books so we don’t make them buy another.

• QUICK-GRAB MODEL: a “second” telescope for experienced observers, when the occasion doesn’t call for big equipment. Complete telescope, base, dust-cap, and carrying strap. Such people already have their own eyepieces and skywatching books so we don’t make them buy more.

• The OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLY (including eyepiece focuser) is a useful component to add to large telescopes as a finder, and for photographers to use as a “telephoto lens”. It can also be a long-distance microscope. For technically-advanced users who already have the fittings, mountings, eyepieces, and skywatching books they prefer, so we don’t make them buy more.

• YOUR CUSTOM MODEL, selected from our buffet of features and accessories. Tell us what you have in mind, so we can make suggestions.

Origins: Bright–Eye is assembled in USA from mostly-American-made parts. For the Newcomer model, 85% of the cost and 69% of the parts come from the USA. Tracing back further: 19% of the parts, costing 5% of the dollars, come from Earth’s Anthropocene Epoch. 42% of the parts, costing 20% of the dollars, came from Earth’s Carboniferous Period. Geological origins of the remainder could not be determined. Even further back: cosmically, roughly 5% of the mass originated in the Big Bang, 65% from Red Giants, and 30% from Supernova explosions. We post updates and details on our website.

ADVICE

HOBBY
Amateur astronomy is a hobby. A wonderful aspect of hobbies is that you do only the parts you like. If part of the subject doesn’t interest you, simply skip that. You can also do the interesting parts in the ways you prefer. You decide for yourself how to do things. We suggest how other people enjoy exploring the Universe, but those are never requirements (except the warning to NEVER POINT A TELESCOPE AT THE SUN. That’s a firm rule.) As in all science, and all specialties, you can dig into finer and finer technicalities. Later! Whenever you feel like it. Maybe years later. Maybe never.

ASTRONOMY CLUBS
Astronomy clubs serve every big city and lots of smaller places. Even if you’re not usually a “joiner”, this is where to find people who have already been through the awkwardness of beginning. They know the best observing locations. They know where to buy advanced equipment when you get to that. They are happy to advise you. Most clubs host star parties where everybody can look through everybody else’s telescopes. Every club has its own personality. Visit all the clubs that are easy enough to get to. Join the one that feels best. Astronomy clubs are listed online, and your nearest planetarium probably knows all of them.

RETURN VISITS SHOW MORE
Like other fine art, celestial objects reward return appearances. First, enjoy the brightest and most contrasty parts. On later returns, seek dimmer details – “supporting stars” – in clusters and the Milky Way. Watch for patches and filaments in nebulæ and galaxies. Scout around for wider context. Mercury, Venus, and the Moon are lit from different angles at different times. Jupiter’s and Saturn’s clouds are always churning.

CHILDREN
Skywatching is one of the few activities that children and adults can pursue as near-equals. You can see the same things, and learn the same skills and science, at the same rate. Galaxies are just as stupendous and wondrous to jaded adults as to elementary kids.

Children under 9 or 10 simply haven’t developed enough yet to handle a scientific instrument, even an easy one like Bright–Eye. Of course, children vary immensely in behavior and intellect, and different aspects mature at wildly different rates and ages. If you wonder whether you should leave a child alone with Bright–Eye, don’t. Help them till they convince you they don’t need you. After that, drop by frequently and have them show you what they’re observing.

TABLES
Most people set their Bright–Eye on a picnic table or card table. Car hoods are no longer horizontal, but some car trunk lids are horizontal enough. The eyepiece (when the scope is pointing straight up) should be a little lower than your eye, for whatever you’re sitting on. If you have to bend down awkwardly, you won’t be comfortable while searching for or observing objects. You may not even find certain objects, if looking in their direction is too awkward.

An alternative is to use a tray that hangs onto a car window. 1950s-style “car hop” trays are available from eBay, Etsy, and other sources. Considering our use, I think they’re “star hop” trays. If the tray shakes a little, damp that with a gentle finger. Get the “large” size from Meritt Tool & Die, 203 W. Third Street, Vermontville, MI 49096. I bought mine through their store on Etsy.com.

Those trays’ hooks only hang on the windows of some cars. Back in the heyday of car hops, almost all cars had windows that had straight horizontal tops. No longer. A lot of car window tops are now curved and sculpted in ways that these trays simply can’t hook onto. For these trays to work well, they have to hook onto windows, at positions 11½ inches (28 cm) apart, that are at the same height above the ground. Measure your car windows before ordering a tray!

SIT OR STAND
Bright–Eye is easy to cradle in your lap while you sit in a chair, on a bench, or on the ground. You can brace it with your lap, with an arm hugging it, and with the shoulder strap helping hold it tautly. That’s stable enough for personal enjoyment, especially a leisurely scan along the Milky Way.

You can even hold Bright–Eye stable enough while standing up, if you lean against a building or car. Hold steady using your strap, arms, chest, and abdomen.

SEEING RED
The only color of flashlight to use while skywatching puts out red light. All other colors destroy your dark-adaptation. After using white light at night, it may take 10 minutes to re-adapt fairly well, and 30 minutes to adapt completely, to seeing the faintest objects.

Red lights are widely available in bicycle shops, outdoor outfitters, and elsewhere. You can also cover a white-light flashlight with red cellophane (available as gift-wrapping) or red nail polish.

SHOW OTHERS
Once you know your way among the stars, and know what you’re looking at, use your Bright–Eye to show other people what celestial objects look like. Tell them something about the objects you show. You could do this as part of an organized event like Astronomy Day or Sidewalk Astronomers, or as a Halloween treat, or for people from a school, or elder care, or friends, or anybody. It doesn’t matter who or when, but it matters a lot that you do some such thing.

ADVANCED SKY BOOKS
After you learn what you want from Guy Ottewell’s To Know the Stars, you’re ready for a higher level of sky guide. There are many, each with a different attitude. Examine all the ones your library has, and all the ones your astronomy club members have. Since the stars and constellations don’t change much, consider older editions from online listings.

I supply a sheet of oval stickers, so you can show where you have traveled ... across the sky: “Looked There, Seen That”.

When you observe an object, especially if it’s part of a project, you can write its name or number on an oval. I couldn’t guess whether you’d want to call the prettiest star cluster the “Pleiades”, “7 Sisters”, “Subaru”, or “M 45”. All of those are correct. But I don’t have to guess. Do it any way you want.

The classic observing project is to find every Messier object. Charles Messier was a French comet-hunter in the late 1700s. He was annoyed by blotches in the sky that looked fuzzy, like comets, but never moved across the background of stars like comets do. Therefore they weren’t comets ... therefore they were a waste of time. He listed over 100 of them to alert astronomers to skip these distractions!

Later telescopes revealed details in each object. Many Messier objects are clusters of stars. Many others are gas clouds; the Latin word is “nebulæ”. Most the rest are galaxies like our entire Milky Way, but much farther.

Messier had charted the best “deep-sky” objects. Some astronomical groups award certificates to members who see them all. Bright–Eye shows every Messier object.

... and more! I plan to publish 2 new categories from very creative authors.
• An “asterism” is any star pattern that isn’t one of the 88 official constellations. Your Bright–Eye reveals hundreds of them. Some have geometric shapes, so find a line, triangle, square, circle, etc. Some look like letters, so spell your name with stars.
• “Birthday stars” lie farther and farther numbers of light-years away. Help 8-year-olds see light that left its star when they were born 8 years ago. The next year, see light that left a different star 9 years ago, and so on.

You can record every sight you see on an oval. Stick its oval on your telescope cylinder or base, or in an observing log, or a wall or appliance. Maybe arrange them in the order in which you saw them, or separately for the solar system, Messier objects, asterisms, birthday stars, and other projects.

ADORNMENTS:
DECORATION
Decorate your Bright–Eye any way you wish, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of using the scope. Brownish scope: a Steampunked version by Artist/Astronomer Richard Miles. He accepts commissions in several artistic styles. StarBaseOne@outlook.com . Bluish scope: one painted in the style of Piet Mondrian.

DETOURS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS

DO NOT TOUCH GLASS SURFACES
The eyepiece and all mirrors are sensitive to the slightest smudge. Cleaning optical glass is so finicky that you’d rather not need to.

IT GETS COLD
Dress as if it’s 15º colder than you expect. That’s because you’re mostly standing still, not exercising, while wind-chill blows away your body heat. Wear a warm head cover and warm socks. Dress in layers, so adding or subtracting is easy. Insulation comes from the air trapped between layers. Keep warmth handy if you’ll be out longer than half an hour – a warm car, hot beverage, or other source.

LIGHT POLLUTION
The famous astronomer Caroline Herschel complained that town lights veiled a good look at Halley’s Comet ... in 1835! Light pollution grew ferociously in the 1900s and remains ghastly in the 2000s. Some fancy filters help a bit. But since your Bright–Eye is extremely portable (even adding a card table), get out of town! Your astronomy club has already scouted surrounding areas and will recommend the best one for you. If you don’t get such advice, examine a regional map. Notice where all the towns are. Go as far from them as you can. Mass transit only goes where masses of people go, so you’ll need a car. Bring food, warmth, pest repellant, red light, and star maps. Experience and club members will help you build your own checklist.

THE FULL MOON
The brighter the phase, the worse it makes viewing clusters, nebulæ, and galaxies. But there’s definitely a lot to see: the Moon itself! It is by far the most detailed celestial sight. Many books, magazines, and websites tell you all about its features. Since it’s uncomfortably bright, dim the view by covering most of your scope’s top opening – taping cardboard across ¾ of the open area helps. If it’s not exactly Full Moon, you can see surface detail in the long shadows on the sunrise/sunset line. For several nights before and after Full Moon, “rays” from geologically-recent cratering impacts show up wonderfully. The lava-seas are dark, but notice that patches are different shades of grey. You can recognize many large craters even without shadows.

CLOUDS
Forecasts help you plan your next clear evening. For hour-by-hour predictions for cloudiness and temperature, start at www.cleardarksky.com. Then you might watch the clouds on Venus, Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn, and the deep-space clouds called nebulæ. When Earth’s clouds block the sky, there’s still something to see, at least by daylight, no scope needed: Earth’s clouds themselves. There are several types. Which ones are left over from the last weather system that passed? Which are portents of the next one coming?

INSECTS AND OTHER WILDLIFE
They’ve used this habitat since long before humans arrived. Some ignore us, some avoid us. Some consider us as food, others treat us as rivals to expel or fight. Ask several local people how to minimize hassles.

FUZZY VIEWS
Look at the sky to see if clouds or trees are impinging on your view. You can still see bright objects through thin clouds and trees.

Dew can collect on your window and eyepiece. Some people use an electric hair-drier to blast dew away. Don’t wipe dew off the optics directly! You could scratch the optics, and you can leave a film that demands delicate cleaning.

Dust can also collect. Blow that away with pressurized “canned air”, available at camera stores. Camel-hair brushes can softly nudge dust away. Don’t wipe dust off, because the particles are themselves grit that will scar the optics.

Examine each optical component. It may be time to clean them. Follow instructions on page \\

HIGH MAGNIFICATION
The best uses for high magnification include seeing detail on the Moon and planets, and splitting close double stars. High magnification demands many trade-offs, however. The entire mounting must be very stable, since every vibration is magnified too. The field of view is tiny, so the occasional tap — that works with Bright–Eye’s rich field — loses the target at high power. You need a clock drive or computer-driven scope. And it’s not rare for the computer to fail to find the object. See “Setup Time and Technicality” below.

DETOURS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
WITH DIFFERENT TELESCOPES

DELICACY
Bright–Eye is deliberately made sturdy. Using it, you may develop habits that are too rough for delicate scopes. Watch carefully how other people use theirs.

SET-UP TIME AND TECHNICALITY
Big powerful multi-task telescopes can do a lot. But they typically need 15-20 minutes to set up, and the same to take down. Learn exactly how each doodad fits into its thingamabob. Watch the owners set up at a few star parties. Carry heavy parts very carefully! Then volunteer to help several times before trying it on your own.

FREQUENT FIDDLING
Every fitting has a purpose. It’s adjustable because it needs to be adjusted. The more complicated the equipment, the more adjustments it needs. The results are superior, but you have to earn them.

AUTOMATIC FINDING
Computerized mountings can usually find objects automatically. How good that is depends on your attitude (as well as how well the gizmo works). Hurrying right to the intended target is similar to a traveler jetting into a city. Watching the sky along the way, as with Bright–Eye, is like taking in the countryside until you get there.

ASTRO-IMAGING
If you’re a newcomer, we echo the advice of tens of thousands of experienced observers to delay the frustrating finicky technicalities of time-exposures for a few years. Yes, years, really! Anecdotes are available at all astronomy clubs.

This is our temporary website, until www.Bright-Eye.com is ready for prime time. GoDaddy's webcrafters find creative ways to bungle every instruction I give. Can you recommend a different webcrafter?

We are accepting reservations but not new orders via eMail: normsperling@gmail.com; or by snail-mail to: 2625 Alcatraz Avenue #235, Berkeley, California 94705 USA. Once we finish the first batch of telescopes, we will determine production processes for the next batch.

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Welcome to the easiest way to start exploring space. Bright-Eye® Telescopes offer newcomers a superior portal to the wonders of the night sky.

• Point and look: Bright-Eye is tailored to be the easiest telescope to use, not the dim wobbly frustration of toy-department scopes.

• Wow, now: Get to the good stuff right away.

• See the Big Picture: Bright–Eye excites you with thrilling views of the Milky Way, the Moon, stars, clusters, galaxies, nebulae, and comets.

I have been popularizing astronomy all my life. I’ve given thousands of planetarium shows, taught astronomy to thousands of college students, and wrote the Sky & Telescope magazine articles that transformed Astronomy Day from a few local observances into a global celebration.

The telescope I co-designed eventually went out of production, so I resolved to revive it. It had been a major task for a sizable company to make originally, and harder still for little old me. I figured it shouldn’t be as hard as raising my kids as a single dad. But it demands every bit as much persistence and determination. Many materials, methods, and components have changed.

This telescope has lots of fans because it excites newcomers. You’re next!

EASY & QUICK

HOW DO YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR TELESCOPE TIME?

Would you rather be overwhelmed by the majesty of the heavens, or by the fiddly details of setting up a telescope?

Set-up time deters most users. Following a centuries-old mindset, big, serious telescopes and accessories take 15-20 minutes to set up, and the same to take down, committing 30-40 minutes of a night just to that. To justify so much preparation, observing often occupies most of the night. Many dedicated observers do exactly that and love it.

A lot more people love the sky’s glories, but not the set-up. Many fans delight in a half hour of sky-watching, but not in all-nighters. Family and friends are a lot more willing to look at a few sights for a few minutes with you.

Serious observers appreciate these very same factors. On many nights they just want a “quick-grab” scope to check out a thing or 2, not a long list. After they graduate to a big complicated rig, they keep their rich-field scope by the door.

EASY EYEPIECE

Experts in eyepiece design emphasize comfort and ease. This “eye-relief” is one of several qualities traded off to achieve ultra-wide views. It’s also traded off to minimize certain distortions. Experienced, dedicated observers may want those other factors so much that they’re willing to trade off eye-relief. Newcomers prefer an image that they can see easily.

LOTS TO DO

PROJECTS

• The classic observing project is to find every Messier object. Charles Messier was a French comet-hunter in the late 1700s. He was annoyed by blotches in the sky that looked fuzzy, like comets, but never moved across the background of stars like comets do. Therefore they weren’t comets, therefore they were a waste of time. He listed over 100 of them to alert astronomers to skip these distractions!

Later telescopes revealed details in each object. Many Messier objects are clusters of stars. Many others are gas clouds; the Latin word is “nebulæ”. Most the rest are galaxies like our entire Milky Way, but much farther.

Messier charted the best “deep-sky” objects. Some astronomical groups award certificates to members who see them all. Bright–Eye shows every Messier object.

• An “asterism” is any star pattern that isn’t one of the 88 official constellations. Your Bright–Eye reveals hundreds of them. Some have geometric shapes, so find a line, triangle, square, circle, etc. Some look like letters, so spell your name with stars.

• “Birthday stars” lie farther and farther numbers of light-years away. Help 8-year-olds see light that left its star when they were born 8 years ago. The next year, see light that left a different star 9 years ago, and so on.

• Watch the Moon go through its phases. The sharpest detail lies along the sunrise/sunset line, in a different place every night. Notice eye-catching features: the flat dark lava plains, the fresh craters with rays around them, sunrise and sunset creeping across mountains and craters ...

After you try out the skywatching book that comes with your telescope, seek even more suggestions from:
• The World Wide Web.
• Astronomical magazines like Astronomy, and Sky & Telescope.
• Your friendly local astronomy club.

When you’re ready: ADVANCED SKY BOOKS. There are many, each with a different attitude. Examine all the ones in your library (call numbers 520-523) and all the ones your astronomy club members have.

Bright–Eye is educational as well as entertaining. Bright–Eye is meant to check out to students to use at home on their own. It shows the entire Messier catalog of objects. It boggles students who roam the Milky Way. It demonstrates how Newtonian reflectors work. It lets an instructor deploy a telescope with uncommon qualities in showing the evening’s targets.

DECORATE YOUR OWN

Decorate your Bright–Eye any way you wish, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of using the scope. Brownish version: a Steampunked version by Artist/Astronomer Richard Miles. He accepts commissions in several artistic styles. StarBaseOne@outlook.com . Bluish version: painted in the style of Piet Mondrian.

Bright-Eye supplies a sheet of oval stickers, so you can show where you have traveled ... across the sky: “Looked There, Seen That”.

When you observe an object, especially if it’s part of a project, you can write its name or number on an oval. I couldn’t guess whether you’d want to call the prettiest star cluster the “Pleiades”, “7 Sisters”, “Subaru”, or “M 45”. All of those are correct. But I don’t have to guess. Do it any way you want.

You can record every sight you see on an oval. Stick its oval on your telescope cylinder or base, or in an observing log, or a wall or appliance. Maybe arrange them in the order in which you saw them, or separately for the solar system, Messier objects, asterisms, birthday stars, and other projects.

Bright–Eye is analog, not digital. The image is powered entirely by the photons you collect from outer space.

Bright–Eye is manual, not motor-driven. You steer it yourself. The instructions tell you how.

Bright–Eye is mechanical, not electronic.

Bright–Eye keeps working for decades with less servicing than any other kind of telescope.

Bright–Eye casts its web vastly beyond merely “worldwide”; way beyond our solar-system, way beyond our Milky Way, to galaxies more than 50 million light years away.

Even if you look at billions of stars, that will not jam Bright–Eye. If you look at something in an unexpected format, Bright–Eye will show the object anyway. If you look at photons that have traveled millions of years, through Bright–Eye they look as good as when they were fresh.

The celestial objects you view are real. They are not virtual or fictitious. Many of them were beyond the imaginations of their discoverers. They still invoke superlatives.

We are accepting reservations but not new orders via eMail: normsperling@gmail.com; or by snail-mail to: 2625 Alcatraz Avenue #235, Berkeley, California 94705 USA. Once we finish the first batch of telescopes, we will determine production processes for the next batch.

• CHECK-OUT MODEL, for libraries, clubs, and classes to check out. Complete telescope and carrying strap. For people using it unsupervised, I make pieces harder to lose: I bolt the eyepiece in, and tether the base and dust-cap with wire. Such groups already have skywatching books so I don’t make them buy another. $599.

• QUICK-GRAB MODEL: a “second” telescope for experienced observers, when the occasion doesn’t call for big equipment. Complete telescope, base, dust-cap, carrying strap. Such people already have their own eyepieces and skywatching books so I don’t make them buy more. $549.

• The OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLY (including eyepiece focuser) is a useful component to add to large telescopes as a finder, and for photographers to use as a “telephoto lens”. It can also be a long-distance microscope. For technically-advanced users who already have the fittings, mountings, eyepieces, and skywatching books they prefer, so I don’t make them buy more. $499.

• YOUR CUSTOM MODEL, selected from the buffet of features and accessories. Tell me what you have in mind, so I can make suggestions.

SHIPPING
If you have an account with a shipping company (like UPS, FedEx, DHL, ...), simply tell us your account number. I don’t have to reckon the price, you don’t have to front the money, and they put it on your regular bill,.

If you don’t have a shipping account number:
• In the “lower-48” US states, $60 for the Newcomer, Check-Out, and Quick-Grab models; $40 for the Optical Tube Assembly.
• Everywhere else on Earth: Reckoned case-by-case.
• Delivery to other planets is expensive, sporadic, and undependable. Don’t go there.

SALES TAX
Orders delivered within California must add sales tax.

THE RICH FIELD SWEET-SPOT

This very-short-focal-ratio (f/4) telescope delivers a very wide 3º field of view with a conventional eyepiece. This delivers many advantages while costing only a few ... though those aren’t trivial.
• A wide view is breathtakingly beautiful because you see more stars, especially with open clusters and along the Milky Way. Many people devote entire observing sessions to roaming the Milky Way because there’s always so much to see.
• The wide view concentrates the light of nebulae and galaxies and faint clusters. Compacting their light makes each one more contrasty so it’s a lot easier to notice.
• This same contrast enhancement makes comets a lot easier to see. Rich-field telescopes are nick-named “comet seekers” because comets stand out, and also because you cover more sky in each view while hunting them.
• A wide view means that celestial objects appear to cross the view more slowly. We all perch on Earth, which rotates, and carries our view across the starry sky. It’s not much bother to nudge the scope to keep up once in a while. If you accidentally “lose” the object, it’s easy to “sweep” all around the neighborhood and find it again, usually in a few seconds. Scopes with narrow views have to use clock drives to keep a star centered. That forces the expense and weight of motors and gears and the computer that controls them. It also forces spending set-up time for the telescope to learn how it’s oriented among the stars. Those systems take frustratingly long to get working. That can ruin your mood, or even the whole observing session.
• Because the view is so wide, you see a lot of sky at once. It’s easy to search for the next target quickly because you cover so much sky so quickly.
• Bright–Eye’s view is so wide that you can hold the scope steady enough by cuddling it in your lap! You don’t need a table or the base.
— That all works fine for eyeball observing. It does NOT work for astrophotography. A lot of people are attracted to astronomy by seeing the most beautiful photos taken by the most accomplished astro-imagers. Realistically, astro-imaging is so complicated, and has so many ways for things to go wrong, that most experts agree that newcomers shouldn’t try it at all. Get a year or 3’s experience before diving into that time-sink.

PORTABLE

You can wear Bright–Eye home on a school bus. You can wear Bright–Eye while riding a bicycle or motorcycle to get to a better observing spot. Wear a Bright–Eye farther into a field than would be convenient for a heavy scope. Bright–Eye fits into any car or train or bus, and many backpacks.

STABLE

Most cheap telescopes wobble. They use flimsy tripods. Their mounts vibrate around a small pivot. Wobbly mounts make it frustratingly hard to point a telescope at what you seek.

Bright–Eye pivots on 3 widely-separated felt pads. The distance between those pads confers stability. Most people put the base on a picnic table or a portable table they’ve picked for stability, like a card table.

BARGAINING AWAY THE SOLAR SYSTEM

There’s a big, important class of objects that look better at high magnification, as opposed to the low magnification that makes a wide view possible. They are the planets, Moon, and Sun. But I haven’t traded off everything.
• The Moon looks great through all telescopes, including Bright–Eye.
• The Sun is so brilliant that you should NEVER look directly at it through ANY scope. The safest method is to project onto a white card ... and you can do that just fine with Bright–Eye.
• Mercury and Venus do not show surface details through any amateur telescope. All you can see is the phases they go through, much like the Moon’s. Through Bright–Eye you can plainly see the phase, and that’s all there is to see.
• Mars looks so small that it’s a disappointment through all portable telescopes.
• Uranus and Neptune are faint. The largest amateur telescopes show them as featureless discs. Bright–Eye shows them as small featureless discs.
• Pluto is way too faint to see through portable telescopes.
• That leaves Jupiter and Saturn, which do look better through longer scopes than through Bright–Eye. Bright-Eye shows Saturn’s glorious ring. Bright–Eye reveals a couple belts on Jupiter and sometimes on Saturn (depending on Saturn’s weather). It shows the 4 big moons of Jupiter and the 2 biggest moons of Saturn. It shows the equatorial bulges of both planets. But it shows all that smaller than other scopes do.

This is Bright–Eye’s biggest trade-off. I knew it going in. We bought superior views of 100 deep-sky objects at the expense of superior views of 2 planets. If Jupiter and Saturn interest you the most, Bright–Eye is not the best telescope for you. Seek a telescope that’s f/20 and 1/20-wave, and has a highly technical mount.

IT’S HARD TO MAKE THINGS EASY

Smartphones’ easy simplicity gives portability, instant set-up, and quick finding. But that requires expensive design and construction. Bright-Eye, too, benefits from a great deal of attention, many peoples’ contributions, meticulous design and engineering, and custom-made components.

PRICE VERSUS QUALITY

Everybody knows “you get what you pay for.”

Bright–Eye is inherently a compact telescope. Therefore there’s less material in it, it’s made on smaller machines, and it’s cheaper to transport. All those save money without sacrificing quality.

Though Americans invented and popularized this type of telescope in America, global economic forces lured its manufacture overseas in the late 1900s. The first contractor maintained good quality. But after that, low price was bought at the cost of irregular and undependable quality.

Bright–Eye is not made in the cheapest possible way and therefore does not carry the cheapest possible price. Instead, it works well.

ASSEMBLED IN USA

Bright–Eye is assembled in USA, using mostly-USA-made parts. It is built to American standards ... and my standards. Every part is carefully inspected. Everything does what it’s supposed to.

ORDERS AND CONTACT

BRIGHT–EYE MODELS
All come with a manual, which is also online.

We are accepting reservations but not new orders via eMail: normsperling@gmail.com; or by snail-mail to: 2625 Alcatraz Avenue #235, Berkeley, California 94705 USA. Once we finish the first batch of telescopes, we will determine production processes for the next batch.

• CHECK-OUT MODEL, for libraries, clubs, and classes to check out. Complete telescope and carrying strap. For unsupervised borrowers, I make pieces harder to lose: I bolt the eyepiece in, and tether the base and dust-cap with wire. Such groups already have skywatching books so I don’t make them buy another. $599.

• QUICK-GRAB MODEL: a “second” telescope for experienced observers, when the occasion doesn’t call for big equipment. Complete telescope, base, dust-cap, carrying strap. Such people already have their own eyepieces and skywatching books so I don’t make them buy more. $549.

• The OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLY (including eyepiece focuser) is a useful component to add to large telescopes as a finder, and for photographers to use as a “telephoto lens”. It can also be a long-distance microscope. For technically-advanced users who already have the fittings, mountings, eyepieces, and skywatching books they prefer, so I don’t make them buy more. $499.

• YOUR CUSTOM MODEL, selected from the buffet of features and accessories. Tell me what you have in mind, so I can make suggestions.

SHIPPING
If you have an account with a shipping company (like UPS, FedEx, DHL, ...), simply tell us your account number. They put it on your regular bill, you don’t have to front the money, and I don’t have to reckon the price.

If you don’t have a shipping account number:
• In the “lower-48” US states, $60 for the Newcomer, Check-Out, and Quick-Grab models; $40 for the Optical Tube Assembly.
• Everywhere else on Earth: Reckoned case-by-case.
• Delivery to other planets is expensive, sporadic, and undependable. Don’t go there.

SALES TAX
Orders delivered within California must add sales tax.

COLORS

For the Bright-Eye KX telescopes produced for the Kickstarter.com campaign, I attempt to customize telescopes using the backers’ favorite colors. Inquire about later models and customizations.

Most of my intro-astro students are diligent, and many are creative. Some of that second group aren’t in the first group. Here’s what they wrote on tests.

* [Mayans] used the sun to tell time by using steaks and shadows.

* Planets cover the same amount of mass in the same amount of time.

* [Kepler’s Third Law] The ratio of the average of a period of 2 planets is equal to the average cube of the semi-major axis.

* The period of rotation is proportional to our radius or something!

* Gravity pulls on things because of heat. Sunlight is brought down to Earth with the help from gravity.

* Newtonian telescopes consists of a secondary mirror added to the side in order to create more light to see colors.

* When a meteor passes earth its tail leaves behind comets which light & burn up in the sky or atmosphere of the earth.

* Uranus reflects most of the sunlight that it absorbs.

* You can tell the age of an object by looking at the objects within them.

* You can tell how old a star is by examining its main sequence.

* Stars with darker colors are considered a lot newer.

* Sefiet variables are used to measure the distance between space and the universe.

* A supernova emerges when iron reaches the core of the sun.

* The disk which is made of “arms” is just an extension of clustures which “spirals” out & sometimes makes eddies as a result of the outward gravity for a time being able to push out a section of clustures.

I display at a lot of fairs and club meetings. Most prospective customers are pretty close to what I expect: people of similar interests and varying expertise.

But I also meet people, often running other booths, who got shortchanged in their education and don’t know how to move forward.

I recently encountered an eager man who bubbled over about the service he was selling. I immediately recognized it as pseudoscience. When he started reciting details, I several times shook my head and said, no, that’s NOT the way things work. That’s not so.

He was stunned.

From what he said and what he asked, I guessed his science education never went past middle school, so I sold him a high-school textbook with a chapter on what he needed to know. He dove in like he’d been starved. He’ll learn an awful lot from that book.

There are scads of reasons for education not to “take”.
* Unfavorable home situations that prevent or distract.
* Competing pulls.
* Not knowing the local language well enough.
* Belief systems that block out reality.
* An earlier experience, such as a bad teacher, “turned them off”.
* Immaturity.
* Illness: I met a student who had an ear infection when her class studied division in grade school. She didn’t hear the lessons, and still couldn’t divide 6 years later. She was sensational at covering up.
* Cultural hangups that prevent using resources.
* Personal hangups. I know a person who was telling me some pretty wise things, so I recommended that he “tell it to a piece of paper” -- write it down. He replied “If I could do that, my whole life would be different” -- that’s one of his hangups.
These are nothing to feel guilty about, just bad luck.

But our society also excels at ways to learn what you didn’t learn before.
* The public library.
* Educational TV.
* Online encyclopedias, animations, lectures, lessons, and so on.
* Public lectures.
* Informal education like museums, and parks with rangers and signage.
* Adult school.
* Community college courses.
These are free or cheap. People can take them in any amount at any pace, whenever it suits them.

A whole lot of people do. When I was giving planetarium shows, it was not rare for a person to come up to the console afterward and ask basic questions. In teaching at community colleges, and night courses at universities, I’ve met people who are trying to better themselves, and get more satisfying careers. (Not necessarily better-paying! 2 of my most-memorable students were a truck driver and a plumber, who made more money than I did, but with dramatically less satisfaction.)

But many people don’t think of all the resources available to them; I have to push the recommendations. That applies even more to folks like the first guy mentioned above. He could have learned the folly of his spiel in a library, in an encyclopedia, from a used-book store, a new-book store, a GED course, a community college course, or from a thousand on-line resources. It never occurred to him to do so.

As a purveyor of pseudoscience, he’s not evil, he’s just ignorant. Maybe the folks who promote the program he bought into might be evil, or maybe they’re just ignorant too.

Our culture would be enormously improved by folks of all ages patching the holes in their knowledge. Many will probably choose their favorite entertainment instead. But many will eventually, as it suits them, learn up on their weaknesses. That would decrease the market for pseudoscience as well as the number of its pushers. It will also improve the overall functioning of Society. We’ve already got the stuff in place. All we need is to effectively recommend it to folks who need it.

In teaching astronomy, I not only have to teach many very strange concepts, I also have to deal with the very strange terms that Science uses for them. Over the years, I've learned that students find it harder to learn the words than the concepts.

When confronted by a strange term, a student will learn its definition and keep that in mind.

When confronted by a second strange term in the same field, the student will learn that definition, too, and keep it in mind.

Sharp students can even keep in mind the definition of a third strange term.

But that's the practical maximum. If you try to teach them a fourth strange term, their circuits go on "overload", they freeze, dump all 4 definitions, and regard your subject as "confusing" and therefore "too hard to learn".

So I minimize strange terms. The students benefit any time I can substitute plain English for a technical term.

Some are avoidable. Some are not. I can talk plain-English around a lot of astronomy. "Cliffs shaped like curlicues" works way better than "lobate escarpments" on Mars. "Layering" works better than "stratification" on many solid objects. "Mindset" works well enough for "paradigm". But I still use "nebula" because neither "space cloud" nor "hydrogen-helium cloud" conjure up the right concept in students' heads.

Where the astronomical term describes something entirely beyond human-level experience, no conventional term does well enough. "Nuclear fusion" is NOT "burning" - burning is much weaker, a chemical reaction in electron shells.

At observing sessions, students and the public hear a whole lot of information, but don't keep notes, nor remember it too sharply. Remembering the data shouldn't be the main thrust anyway; seeing the objects is.

Prepare telescope trading cards, and object trading cards, to give to all comers:
* On each scope card, show a snazzy photo of the scope, its statistics, interesting background, and its proud owner/operator.
* On each object card, show a visual impression resembling what the observer actually sees; plus a more impressive astrophoto; the object's statistics, and interesting background. Include major catalog designations and nicknames.

Prepare plenty of these cards so scope operators and volunteers can hand out the right ones. Cards should hugely reinforce the educational experience, giving a tangible card to show to others (encouraging them to come); keeping the information from getting pathetically garbled; and reminding visitors how well they observed.

Kids already have LOTS of trading-card display sheets, boxes, and so on. They can handle the cards. And parents ought to strongly encourage these cards. Cards should cost a few cents to produce, are cheap and easy to update and replace, and easy to generate anew. It might cost a buck a kid for star parties and most musea, but should pay dividends in post-visit appreciation and word-of-mouth promotion.

All-day visitors to a big museum could amass a couple dozen cards, if they are given for every planetarium show and exhibit. They'll remind visitors for years of their visit. Visitors to other venues might get cards for flora, fauna, minerals, and cloud types along the way. Perhaps each hiking trail could have one, or even each "look at this" post.

Where attendees have smartphones, give them digital versions instead of cardboard cards.

After 15+ years of parent-teacher meetings, I've attended my last. I've heard what happens, in and around those groups, since before my older boy entered Kindergarten. I've taught K-12, undergrad college students, and a few grad students. I've listened to a whole lot of students at all levels.

The Big Things that are wrong with Education are going to stay wrong. Almost all the "reforms" proposed by politicians, teachers, administrators, scholars, and the public, would accomplish very little. They nibble around the edges of the problems, because current Political Correctness won't let anybody address true and big problems.

That's because by far the biggest influence on how children succeed, and especially on how children fail, is their parents. In my first stint as a teacher, I figured out that almost every student problem I saw was traceable to their parents.

I never found a culturally-acceptable way to influence those parents. Parents are politically untouchable and unmentionable. The school and the government can't tell parents how to raise their children. Most governments, and many schools, are less competent than many parents, and would pick the wrong factors to squeeze parents on.

--==::==--

Since you can't blame children for acting like children, and politically you can't blame parents, the only target left is the schools. Bad choice. Kids can be spectacularly unresponsive or contrary. A whole lot of students don't do their homework. Schools can grade them accordingly, but without parent support, that accomplishes nothing. So schools conduct class as if that was the place to do what ought to be homework. Without parents scrupulously, patiently, and methodically helping students do every assignment, the kids drift, and the school cannot accomplish much.

Most teachers enter the profession because they want to teach. Most leave because of burnout. Teaching is extremely frustrating, and results from students just not doing what they're taught. That results from parents just not helping the students learn. To improve teaching, reduce teachers' frustrations.

--==::==--

At this point, insert your favorite litany of why parents are overburdened and overmatched and just can't: working too long hours, poorly educated themselves, not knowing enough English ... . Get real: add alcohol, and drugs, and temper, and selfishness, and neglect.

Student failure isn't rooted in poverty: I often encounter successful people who rose from poverty. They almost always tell of a strong adult who helped them learn (most often, their mother). That's what it takes, and the other factors are minor.

Working too-long hours is a bad choice. Drop the worst part-time job. Use the liberated hours to help the children. They'll gain much more from the attention than they'll lose from the dollars. I've never heard an adult criticize their own parents for not having more money, but I often hear regrets that their parents didn't pay enough attention to them.

--==::==--

The PTAs and PTSOs I've been in are full of parents who pay a lot of attention. Their students do relatively well. They have relatively few problems. But the organization fritters a lot of effort.

From students and sometimes parents, I hear of certain students who show occasional sparks. They have ability, and decent minds. But they're mired in unsupportive families, do-nothing mentalities, and sometimes gangs. I think that a few percent of the student population can be identified as slackers who might catch on. Scuttlebutt can identify such people, so the administration doesn't have to. Individual parents in the PTSO could reach out to those students, and where possible, their families. Incorporate them as much as practical in some patterns of success: bring 1 or 2 along on cultural trips. Include 1 or 2 in study sessions. Include 1 or 2 in activities ("hey, could you please pitch in on stage crew? It's fun, and we sure need your help.") If the involved parents at my kids' high school privately targeted 20 such kids a year to draw in, maybe half would "take". Changing 10 F-and-D students into B-and-A students, per year, would raise the school's academic numbers at least as much as most traditional proposals.

I've also noticed repeatedly that kids hear what they're told even if they don't react immediately. It may take years, but some lessons do eventually click. So some students who don't respond right away will benefit eventually.

While I can spot what needs to be done, I'm not very good at doing most of it myself. We did invite a wide variety of kids to join us at baseball games and museums and other jaunts. We did provide some support for neglected kids (especially rides, food, and a few sleepovers).

I could have done more. Maybe I could have learned how to drop some hints with other parents. Maybe I could have included kids more. But I was always so preoccupied just minding my own kids.

I'd like my astronomy students to attend a star party that's designed for their education. They would see a richer variety of sights than at a star party intended for public enjoyment. An educational star party would be located for dark skies more than easy access. Students would observe over about 2 hours rather than 20 minutes. They would look through a greater variety of telescopes (educational in itself) at planned sequences of objects.

Designate part of the open field for naked-eye use. Have a teacher showing constellations and asterisms, and teaching skycraft. Show the Milky Way. "Earth" is a freebie: just look beneath your own feet.

Pre-plan and shout-out the appearances of satellites (especially the Space Station) and Iridium flashes. Keep alert for sporadic or shower meteors.

Select telescopes optimized to give the best views of:

* Each visible planet ... including, by popular demand, Pluto. About half are up at any time. Scope operators should point out noticeable moons.

* The Moon. One scope with a whole-globe synoptic view, followed by one with a high-magnification view near the terminator.

* Asteroids that are "up": Any that are labeled "dwarf planet"; major spectral classes S, C, and M; classes V and G because the Dawn spacecraft visits Vesta and Ceres; whatever other bright ones are available.

Assigning specific scopes to specific objects requires attention to available focal ratios, apertures, eyepieces, and the personalities of their operators. Depending on how long it takes the gathered students to see an object in each telescope, scopes can be re-pointed to other planned objects 2 or 3 times during the session. Several targets require fat light-buckets. 1 or 2 could handle them all, in sequence, during a 2-hour session.

The Telescope Triplets I advocate can also teach how telescopes and eyepieces affect the view.

Asteroids, dwarf stars, several deep-sky objects, and galaxy clusters look tiny and faint. These teach the students to appreciate the views from giant observatories.

For this rich an experience, students could buy $5-$10 tickets. That should cover venue expenses plus honoraria for amateurs who bring their own scopes. Teachers would give credit for attending and filling out observing logs.

Most students can afford a $10 ticket. They would pay that for a night's entertainment anyway. It's similar to the expense of driving to the dark-sky site. They can save more by buying used textbooks instead of new. Someone may want to quietly handle "scholarship" discounts. The event definitely will cost something to run and that needs to be raised.

Cooperating instructors might be able to organize this kind of event, especially if they have access to appropriate scopes and operators, both student and amateur. Here in the San Francisco area, The Astronomical Association of Northern California might be able to organize it. It could also be a commercial venture.

Though designed for students in introductory astronomy courses, such a planned, organized star party should attract many amateur astronomers, and some of the public.